The one writing this owes Paratopic an apology. Sort of. He still isn’t very fond of it, but he was a little harsh, with one of the criticisms being that its story was way too obscure, and that its endless weirdness didn’t always seem to lead anywhere. Having now played Paratopic: Overdub, maybe that was the point. What is this, though, exactly? A remaster, a remix, a sequel? Well, it’s a remaster in the sense that it slightly beautifies the original, and a remix because it frequently feels like a new interpretation of the same events. A sequel, though? No, more like an expansion, as it includes new environments, conversations, different POVs of previous scenes, and other additions scattered throughout. Many of these are interesting simply because they give you more time in this horrible little world. The problem is that more Paratopic isn’t always better Paratopic.
Arbitrary Metric’s short, surreal horror experience threw three apparently disconnected stories at the player. A smuggler dealing in bizarre VHS tapes that seem to affect people and reality itself; an assassin cleaning up a particularly unpleasant mess; someone who wanders into the wrong part of a forest. Strange things happen. People say strange things. Strange faces change, becoming even stranger. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are probably having an intimate scene somewhere behind the camera. Scenes abruptly end. You are left wondering what any of it means.
Paratopic: Overdub retains much of what made it all so immersive. Its grimy, low-poly visuals are still great, and the expanded environments can look quite impressive. The empty highways, motels, forests, diners, and gas stations remain wonderfully unpleasant, post-apocalyptic locales where something is clearly wrong. While it’s a title that belongs in horror, there aren’t many conventional scares. There doesn’t need to be. This is much better at making you uncomfortable than it is at frightening you.
This entry still understands the power of atmosphere. What it doesn’t understand is that adding more scenes doesn’t always improve things. The original worked because it provided fragments, leaving you to put them together. You could theorise about the tapes, the different characters, and the – annoyingly – abrupt finale, but you were never going to get a satisfying answer. There’s considerably more story here. More story means more explanation, and more explanation inevitably makes the whole thing less…well, mysterious.
Don’t worry. This new version of the original tale still provides an experience hellbent on keeping its secrets. It just leaves more info to seep through the cracks. Whether you’ll enjoy what’s on offer is another matter altogether. There are plenty of interesting things here, and some of the environments are among the most enjoyable parts. It’s just that some of the new additions lack the original’s subtlety and nuance.
One example is Paratopic’s conversations. These could be awkward, funny, or completely nonsensical, while Overdub is generally more direct. There is something unsettling about not knowing whether someone is joking or threatening you. It is less unsettling when the game starts making that distinction for you.
Then there’s the question of duration. The first one could be finished in well under an hour, and its short length was arguably what made its flaws easier to stomach. This lasts about twice as long, and while that keeps it firmly in short-story territory, it’s easier to get bored, especially during some unnecessarily long sections that tread dangerously close to tediousness instead of slowly building dread.
It is important to note that, viewed in isolation, Paratopic: Overdub remains an atmospheric and unusual horror-ish adventure with striking presentation and some genuinely memorable moments. That said, it’s difficult to look at it without constantly thinking about Paratopic. Take the visual improvements, for instance. It looks “better,” with crisper models and textures, but at the same time it makes the whole thing look way cleaner than it should.
Paratopic was never conventionally attractive. Its low-resolution textures, crude geometry, warped faces, and muddy lighting were frequently praised precisely because they created an oppressive, dreamlike atmosphere. The “ugliness” was intentional. That means that while Overdub has better environmental detail, it loses some of its Lynchian flair. This remaster essentially solves a problem that never needed solving.
The issue, then, isn’t that Overdub looks “too good.” It’s that Paratopic‘s visual limitations were part of its language: the degraded look of it all and its indistinct spaces made the world feel contaminated and unknowable. To avoid any misunderstandings, in terms of audiovisuals Overdub is still very similar to Paratopic. It is just that, while everything is technically better, whether it’s an improvement or not is up to the one holding the gamepad.
Having nitpicked about it so much up until now, Overdub is not without its own identity. Not all fans of Paratopic will appreciate the changes and additions, but this new expansion/remix/whatever is less a definitive version of the 2018 cult classic and more like a parallel-universe interpretation of the same unnerving nightmare.
It’s clearly made by people who liked the first one and wanted to add to it. Sometimes that works. Sometimes you wish things were left alone. Yes, Overdub is bigger, more detailed, and has more to say this time around, but a much better version of Paratopic? Not really.
If you’ve never played Paratopic, this new iteration of it is still worth experiencing for its atmosphere and peculiar brand of surreal horror alone. If you already know the original, though, approach this one as a curious variation rather than a replacement. You didn’t like the first one that much? Wait for a big discount, but do try it out if given the chance.
